Agenda and minutes

Councillor S Adan (Faith Representative), Councillor F Hussain (Faith Representative) and Jo Crawley (NASUWT and Teacher Representative)

The minutes of the previous meeting were held as a true and proper record. The Committee noted they are still looking for new membership to the Forum

Please see item 1 on the Agenda.

The Deputy Head of Clytha Primary School presented in conjunction with the Pupil Voice Group. The Deputy Head of Clytha Primary School described the key approach to RVE in Clytha Primary.

Key Points:

·        RVE is objective, critical and pluralistic.

·        RVE covers mutual respect for others’ opinions and beliefs.

·        Teachers are given support to create a better flow of progression.

·        Clytha Primary School core values are kindness, honestly and respect.

·        A lot of work has been done in collaboration with the Onyx foundation.

·        A framework around the differences within faiths has been created rather than just focusing on a general approach to them all.

The Teacher Adviser for RVE noted revisiting work is a critical process in RVE.

Key Points:

·        As part of their value of peace, students are taught how to defuse conflicts.

·        The school focuses on making parents and families feel comfortable to share about their faiths with the school.

·        The school has created a map to display what faiths are being covered in each year group as well as highlighting various resources that have been used to create their curriculum.

·        The school focuses on stories and other key parts of religious workings to help develop a deeper knowledge of the religion.

·        A great focus is taking religious principles and linking them into everyday life for pupils to gain a better understanding of religious work even if those religions don’t apply to those students specifically.

·        A key focus within the curriculum is anti-racism and decolonisation of the curriculums.

·        The Pupil Voice group showed members of SACRE examples of how they had researched and investigated key religions. They were also able to show religious artifacts to celebrate Hanukkah. One pupil explained the unique way that her family celebrated Christmas and Hanukkah together (Chrismukkah).

The Forum highlighted the importance of the Clytha Primary School giving children a choice to shape their curriculum and noted it was important to see good quality RVE being maintained in schools.

The Forum detailed the issues of the work at secondary school being very different to the work completed in primary schools. This was due to timetabling and the broad range of subjects taught independently.

The Forum thanked Clytha Primary School and the students that took part in the presentation.

The Head of Education questioned whether they could loan some of the work from Clytha Primary School to display the work within the Civic Centre. The Deputy Head Teacher of Clytha Primary School informed the Committee that this could be looked at.

The Deputy Head Teacher of Clytha Primary School explained to the Committee that the information presented could be shared with the Forum.

Please see item 2 on the Agenda.

The Teacher Adviser for RVE presented this item to the Committee.

Key Points

·        This work is being rolled out across Newport and cluster funding was provided for the training by Educational Achievement Service (EAS).

·        A progression map had been created with the embedded work of virtues.

·        The Teacher Adviser for RVE highlighted that a P4C taster session could be provided to Forum so they could see the work in action.

·        The Head of Education noted a record should be produced to show the work progressed by the cluster.

·        The Teacher Adviser for RVE highlighted kindness was a key virtue that was covered in the previous term. 

·        The Head of Education would like the cluster conversations records to include a box which suggest if a case study could be developed or if there is best practice to share.

·        The Forum said that they would like to participate in a short P4C session to understand it more.

The Teacher Adviser for RVE presented this item to the Committee and shared various resources for Holocaust Memorial Day and noted the Holocaust Memorial Day information could be shared outside of Forum.

The Teacher Adviser for RVE presented this item to the Committee.

The Teacher Adviser for RVE presented this item to the Committee.

Key Points:

The Teacher Adviser asked the Forum whether they wanted any amendments to be made to the report. The Committee detailed the lack of membership being as being a critical issue. The Head of Education highlighted they would be looking back at the terms of reference to see what key groups they were missing from the Committee.

The Head of Education also noted that those who haven’t attended several Forums are taken off the Forum list. The Forum highlighted they would like to meet potential members who would like to join the Forum next year in order to see who would be an appropriate fit.

The report was accepted by the Forum.

There was no A.O.B. discussed. The date of the next meeting is March 12^th, 2024. The Committee will be notified of the venue shortly.